May 2013
1 post
Prophet
Prophet
By Danny Hatch
So what happens is — you still with me? Okay. So what happens is I’m riding my bike and I’m miserable but that isn’t really true. I mean, in a general state, yes, I am miserable. But in this exact, you know, moment? And for the last half hour or whatever? I feel good. When I ride my bike I’m powerful. Nobody can fuck with me. I’ve been hit by a car. I got into a fight...
April 2013
2 posts
Tourist Trap
“Tourist Trap”
by Danny Hatch
1.
It was a beautiful day. Even Tim, who hated the heat and the sun, was happy.
“It’s nice out, huh?” he said to Sarah, but she didn’t answer. She just stared out of the car window, jealous of everything she saw.
“We have to do this, you know,” Tim said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.” “I don’t think we do.” “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of...
I don't know what this is, so now you have to...
This is either a complete little short story or the beginning of a longer thing. I saved the document under the name “Spirit in the Night” on my computer, because it’s about teenagers being sad and drunk at the lake, just like the song. I don’t know what to actually call it though. So for now, it’s nothing. You can read it below the jump. It was my first time writing...
March 2013
3 posts
Poem at 2:27 P.M. on March 29, 2013
July in Oklahoma, riding home from work on my bike. Shirtless in the thick summer air, beautiful and dangerous. I let the warm, angry midnight land on my tongue. Sometimes it festers. Sometimes it melts. Thinking of all the possibilities, all of the greater goods that don’t exist in Oklahoma. Twenty years down, a thousand years to go. Pure angst. Unearned. Blood from my nose dripping down my face...
Some poems, because woe is me, right fellas?
Here are some poems because it’s Sunday and I wrote them. You do not have to enjoy them. I understand that poetry is the worst. I completely understand this. Actually, this probably doesn’t even count as poetry. None of it rhymes and it’s not very rhythmic. But go in with an open mind, you philistines.
“Painted Man”
I am a painted man
A stain
A sham
I have seen...
Here is another new short story
I guess my new thing is hammering out sad short stories and immediately putting them online at absurdly early hours over the weekend. This one is very sad and is an idea that’s been in my mind for awhile. I’ve tried writing it before but it’s never really amounted to much. This is probably the best that’s come of it and it’s still very rough, but I’m proud of it. It even has a happy ending. I...
February 2013
2 posts
Here's a new short story
Sorry it’s been so long since I updated. This is me trying to do the Hemingway-style extreme minimalism and using only dialogue to set the scene. It is very hard to do that, and that’s why this is so short.
It’s called “Trial Separation.” Here’s a direct link, but it’s the post right below this one, so I guess this post was pretty redundant.
I love...
Trial Separation
Trial Separation
“What is it?” “Look.” “I don’t see anything.” “Look.”
“I’m looking.”
“Do you see it now?” “No.” “Jeez…okay. Follow my finger. See? Look where my finger’s going.” “I still don’t see it.” “It’s the Big Dipper.” “I, yeah, I mean I know what it is, I just don’t really see how it looks like a big dipper.” “It…see? There’s the handle, that star there, and then…see, there’s...
January 2013
1 post
So...
Welp, I haven’t updated in over a month. My deepest apologies about that, really. But I’m here now, for real, with some updated and a new thing.
The story I was updating in weekly installments is on hold. I’ve sort of hit writer’s block with that, and have written very little of it in the last month or so. I’m not finished with it yet — I’m still very much committed. I just need to take a...
December 2012
2 posts
Transit, part eight (let's get metaphysical)
Hey guys, sorry about the delay. Last night I wrote a really fun long intro but then I lost it so I got discouraged and decided to put off Tumblr until today.
SO HERE IS THE EIGHTH PART OF MY STORY! IT IS VERY WEIRD AND METAPHYSICAL! It was fun to write.
Click here to catch up on previous parts of this ongoing story. And listen to me on Keith and The Girl here!
Okay, so sorry this intro is...
Transit, part seven
Oh my gosh, you guys, it’s Thursday again and you all know what that means! Another depressing installment of the depressing story I’m writing! There’s an actual plot twist in this one. WHAAAAAAT? I know. It’s really something else.
Okay, so here it is. I guess I’m not feeling very explain-y right now. In case you missed the previous parts, here’s part six,...
November 2012
7 posts
mello-dramatic:
Everyone who reblogs this will get the title of a book to read based on their bio/posts.
Everyone. I mean it.
summerskin: MY EARLIEST MEMORIES →
sparksfliup:
my earliest memory is waking up too early for my parents to be awake and walking downstairs with my pink quilt my mom made over my head thinking, if I can’t see them, they can’t see me and I won’t get in trouble.
or that time during the fourth of July crawdad fest when my dad told me not to play…
Transit, part six. (Oh, hello. I've missed you.)
WHOOOOOOPS. I didn’t put an installment up last week because of Thanksgiving. Sorry, guys. (Like you give a darn.) Anyways, here’s part six. Things are about to get really weird and metaphysical real soon, but for now it’s the same old regular people crises. This installment, which is super long to help make up for last week, was probably (so far) the hardest to write, because...
Transit, part five
Hello, you guys. Sorry about the delay in getting this up. It’s been kind of a hectic week. Anyway, I hope you like this installment. It introduces some new characters. I don’t know what else to say about it. Catch up on the previous installments here if you’ve missed them. Thanks, as always, for your continued support. And if you want to read more things that I’ve written,...
My first book, which you can now buy
Hello, guys, so I have just released a raw, unpolished novel I wrote in November 2010 for National Novel Writing Month. The only time this saw the light of day was in a spiral-bound version that was submitted as a prize for a game of Dirty Santa (it was traded twice.)
The novel is called MISERABILIA. I wrote it at a time in my life when my outlook was largely negative, and that reflects in the...
Transit, part four
Hello, again! It’s Thursday and that means another installment of my ongoing story. I hope you’re enjoying it, and those of you have let me know your thoughts on it—thank you so much. I love hearing your feedback, especially if it’s good. Anyway, enjoy part four. 22 days left in November!
Here are parts one, two and three if you haven’t read them yet.
[[MORE]]
7.
...
Transit, part three
Pre-introduction: Here are parts one and two if you missed them.
Introduction: Hello. Here is part three of my ongoing story. I’ve decided that I’ll be using it for my National Novel Writing Month project, which would mean this thing will be a full-fledged (rough draft) novel by the time December rolls in. Since I’d already written about 3000 words, my goal is 53,000 logged by...
October 2012
2 posts
Transit, part two (SPECIAL EARLY AWESOME...
Introduction: So, guys, as it turns out I am stranded with a capital tranded until at least Tuesday, so I will be using this time to get some major writing done, and also laundry and not drowning in an urban flash flood. Since, I figure, I’ll have more time to write, why not deplete my reserves of saved up story just a little bit more? It will give me more incentive to write, and plus I love...
Transit, part one
Introduction:
Hello, everybody. This is Danny, the real person, writing to introduce a story I am writing and will be releasing here, on Tumblr, in weekly installments. It’s a fictional story, but the characters in it aren’t entirely fake. A lot of them are either heavily based on one or more people or simply an actual person I know. The scenario, though, is entirely fake and an...
September 2012
2 posts
6 tags
A review of TRANSCENDENTAL YOUTH, by The Mountain...
Don’t be fooled by the pre-release press about Transcendental Youth being the The Mountain Goats’ Satan record—apart from a few sly name-checks and the wonderfully creepy album art, it’s really an album rooted in human growth and suffering, with all of the joy and pleasure and terror and sadness and squalor and victory and loss that that suggests.
The Mountain Goats’ specialty is triumphant...
9 tags
Kurt Vile's Smoke Ring for My Halo
Kurt Vile, Smoke Ring for My Halo
I can remember riding my bike to and home from my shitty job at this thrift store supermarket that had just opened up in my hometown and listening to this album. The store was called Elite Thrift and I saw the “HELP WANTED” sign when I was riding around, looking for work after the sandwich shop I had worked for closed down. This was in late November 2011. The...
August 2012
2 posts
A very stupid and dangerous thing I did once
Some context:
I am nineteen years old, almost twenty.
At this point in my life, the world doesn’t look like what it used to. It looks like a series of traps designed to make me give up. I am hurting myself every few days just because it alleviates some of the anger and disgust with myself and shit-my-pants terror that is churning through me.
It is November 2011. The small sandwich place that...
One Lovely Blog Award
So, this morning I woke up to find I had to pee really bad. And when that was all taken care of, I found that I had been nominated for the One Lovely Blog award. Um. Holy crap. That’s awesome. Anna, who is a listener of Keith and The Girl (the podcast I intern for) nominated me. Anna, for reals, thank you so much.
The way you accept the nomination/award is to list seven things about...
July 2012
4 posts
I was nominated for a blog award!
So, Anna, who is a listener of KATG, the show I intern for, nominated me (I’m writing as my blog’s persona, now, I guess) for the One Lovely Blog award, which was very nice of her. I’ll post the required bits about that (7 things about yourself, 15 other blogs you admire) later today, but thank you so much Anna. That was very kind of you.
Blog Award
I nominated you for One Lovely Blog Award. :) Congrats!
http://discoveriesinaletterbox.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/one-lovely-blog-award/
The rules are, to accept, you have to reveal 7 things about yourself and nominate 15 other blogs.
A story about a character on a bus? Where ever...
I’m pretty sure this one is nonfiction. Maybe a few fictional elements, but I didn’t even make up a fake character name this time, so this one’s pretty much me. It’s a short one, I hope you like it.
***
[[MORE]]
I am sitting on the bus, my head against the window, watching the lights on the road blur as we pass them by. It is early morning, maybe 4 o clock. We are...
Fiction and autobiography
Hello, everybody. Sorry it’s been so long since I updated this blog. I’ve been writing, but something I don’t want to put up just yet, but here is something I wrote when I was feeling shitty (which is almost exclusively when I wrote nowadays. Therapy’s expensive. Shut up.) This is a “fiction” piece, in that it’s about a character named Elliott, but...
June 2012
1 post
A poem I wrote a little while ago
Hello, sorry it’s been so long since I updated this blog. I’ve been working on a few things, but they’re all in progress and not ready to be thrown to the e-dogs yet. So here is a poem I wrote a little while ago. It’s sort of melancholic, because that’s the frame of mind I tend to be in when I write, but I’m happy with it. Also, it doesn’t rhyme.
One last...
May 2012
4 posts
The time I fell asleep during school-wide Mass my...
Hmm. I kind of forced my hand on that title. Oh well. Too late to change it now!!!
[[MORE]]
When I was fourteen years old, I fell asleep at school and got a boner. I went to a small Catholic high school and we had a school-wide Mass service once a month. The temperature in the auditorium rose as more and more students and faculty members crowded in until it was a humid mess by the time the...
Hills and Valleys
It’s trash day in the part of Brooklyn I live in, but even though it smells like sweaty garbage it’s a beautiful morning. That’s the problem, though—it’s morning. I should not be out. It’s bad outside during the morning, because that’s when memories are at their most crystal clear and furthest away. I don’t know why—I’m no scientist—but I feel like it has something do with senses. Being outside...
Dystopia, part 4 ("It took him that long to write...
Sorry it’s been awhile. Writing is harrr-erd. But here’s what I’ve been writing.
Parts one and two http://dannyhatch.tumblr.com/post/21696133696/what-i-have-so-far Part three http://dannyhatch.tumblr.com/post/22421550264/dystopia-part-three[[MORE]]
***
The door opens and closes and I am alone in the bathroom. I dive for the piece of paper under my shoe, my fingers shaking with...
Dystopia, part three
In which we go down less and less realistic and artistic paths.
Parts 1 and 2 are here: http://dannyhatch.tumblr.com/post/21696133696/what-i-have-so-far
[[MORE]]
***
November 2, Year 3
New Guy, who tells me his name is David, throws something away in the trash can under my desk. Our desks are identical—every desk in this office is identical. I turn to look at him, puzzled, but he’s turned...
April 2012
19 posts
disappointingrobot:
Harry Potter final battle...
Anonymous asked: So, are you a comedian or a writer?
What I have so far
So, this is a combination of the first two posts about this dystopia thing I am writing. I know it’s very preposterous and dumb, but I still like it. This is everything I’ve written so far (which is about 2000 words…not a lot.)
***
October 31, Year 3 “My fellow citizens of the world,” the man says and then pauses to look into the cameras hovering around him. “It is in this...
The next 1000 words of this dystopia thing I am...
I hope you like it. Tell me what you think.
***
November 2, Year 3
There’s no sign that anything happened, no sign that Reggie was murdered, when I get to my desk the next morning. The blood is scrubbed clean from the floor, and in Reggie’s place is a smaller, much more timid looking young man with thick black glasses. He keeps pushing them up the bridge of his nose until they’re mashed up...
A thought...
Maybe it’s not the smartest thing to just throw up whatever I’m writing onto the Internet as soon as I’ve stopped working on it for five minutes. You know, cause the other way of writing something and showing it to nobody was working pretty well. Maybe this is just bridging the gap between the audience and the writer? Ugh, how pretentious, am I right? Maybe I should stop...
A big dumb sci-fi thing I started writing today
I’ve had this idea for awhile that it might be fun to write about a world with no words. But that would be impossible to write about so I changed it to a world where communication is illegal and finally started it. This is a big dumb sci-fi/dystopia thing. I recognize the ludicrousness of it and I like it, but maybe tomorrow I won’t. It would involve a group of rogue low-ranking...
Anonymous asked: Why not LA?
Anonymous asked: Danny, I am a random dude that you dont know, living in Amsterdam, 3653 miles away, and I love your writing. I am glad Chemda convinced you to be aware of the tools you have to reach greater audiences. It's working. Again, 3653 miles away, loving your blog. I hope you keep us all posted.You're awesome. -- Rick
Anonymous asked: Do you review books too? I remember it coming up on a show a few weeks ago that you review writing. I'm going to advertise a book on the show and we're looking to get reviews. I can get you a copy of the book if you'd be willing to review it.
“This Year” by The Mountain Goats From...
“‘En Gallop’” by Joanna...
A review of Say Anything's "Anarchy, My Dear."
*Edit* Apparently Tumblr doesn’t recognize apostrophes in titles? Or at least my theme doesn’t. Anyway, I’m not a total rube. *End edit*
A disclaimer: I am very much a Say Anything fan, and there are times when I am embarrassed to be very much a Say Anything fan. Say Anything is, for the most part, great. Their albums ...Is A Real Boy and In Defense of the Genre are big,...
“Jackson” by Craig Finn
From the...
mconor asked: you know it's no use blocking me from seeing your posts if you're going to post links to them on facebook anway
Thanks to Chemda
If you guys are enjoying my more frequent posts, thank Chemda for encouraging me to go for it and update more. She really is the salt of the earth, you guys. And if you don’t like these, blame Chemda. She’s the worst.
Just kidding. Thanks, Chemda. Sincerely.
The worst night of my life
The worst night of my life was my last night in my college dorm. I had taken my last final 2 days ago, and most people would have left that night, but I didn’t want to go home. This sounds melodramatic, but it’s my melodrama, so fuck it, but I really didn’t feel like I had a home to go to. And so I waited until the very last day to move out of the freshman dorms, wanting to avoid the bubbling,...
realemotionx asked: Really enjoyed your blog and the episodes you were on. From a total homo you are cute :)
